If you suspected that there was a link between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s talk of ending US military aid to Israel, and Section 224 of the FY27 National Defense Authorization Act on integration of the US and Israeli militaries, Zionist Congressman Marlin Stutzman of Indiana removed all doubts yesterday – with the help of The Washington Post and Netanyahu himself. Stutzman published on his office website a letter from Netanyahu in which, in the words of the Middle East Monitor, “reveals that the transition away from American military aid to Israel is not a US-led reform, but an Israeli initiative delivered to Congress for legislative packaging. Its purpose is not to reduce American entanglement with Israel, but to replace visible financial assistance with a far deeper and less accountable form of military integration.”
In the letter, Netanyahu writes that he is “heartened” by Stutzman’s support for a plan to “develop a new Memorandum of Understanding with the United States government” that will draw down “US financial military assistance over the next decade” and replace it with “a new framework of joint defence cooperation, codevelopment, coproduction and mutual investment” in areas including advanced missile defence, artificial intelligence, unmanned systems, cybersecurity and next-generation military platforms.
Stutzman met Netanyahu in Jerusalem on May 27, one week before he introduced a resolution “to transition the United States-Israel relationship away from one of traditional foreign assistance towards a new era of mutual cooperation, joint investment, and shared development.” Stutzman’s office said the resolution was introduced after the meeting and after Netanyahu gave his “enthusiastic support” for the legislation. MEM comments that the sequence suggests that the legislation was not simply a congressional initiative endorsed by Israel, but an Israeli initiative channeled through Congress.
The framing of ending US aid has been welcomed in some quarters as a sign that Israel is becoming self-sufficient and that the United States is reducing its financial exposure to a country facing international isolation and war crimes proceedings. That reading is contradicted by the letter’s contents and by parallel legislation advancing through Congress, MEM reports further referring to Section 224.
“Above all, the United States and Israel stand together against totalitarianism and for freedom. We are bound by the shared Western values that built both our nations. As long as those values are under threat, we will defend them side by side,” Stutzman declared in an over-the-top use of Orwellian language in his statement. “The alliance is entering a new era. This resolution affirms that the United States stands with Israel not out of obligation, but out of shared strength and shared strategic interest. Israel has come of age where our nations should contribute equally and share results equally.”
According to The Washington Post, Stutzman’s resolution “reflects in part a concern among Israel’s strongest U.S. backers that support for the country is waning, and that a way must be found to rebut the argument that American taxpayers are funding Israel’s wars.”
Stutzman told the Post that the goal of the resolution, embraced by Netanyahu, is to send a message “to the rest of the world that Israel is not just leaning on America.”
“It’s just simply the relationship is changing and growing, and Israel showing the world that they are standing on their own feet,” the congressman said. “Even though we will have a strong partnership with them going forward, it’ll look different.”
